All the News We Can Find on Marriage Equality & LGBT Rights

USA: President Obama Submits Prop 8 Brief; Other Prop 8/DOMA Updates

Written by scott on February 28th, 2013

The waiting is finally over. On the last day, the Obama Administration decided to file an amicus brief urging the repeal of Prop 8. SDGLN reports:

After first suggesting it would not get involved, the Obama administration will file a friend-of-the-court brief late today in support of the two gay couples who launched the fight over the issue four years ago, the officials said. Today is the last day for filing briefs in support of the couples’ position.

The administration’s nonbinding brief contends that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The document urges the justices to give extra rigorous review to any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The Washington Blade has more details on the brief filed by 14 state Attorneys General in the Prop 8 case:

Fourteen state attorneys general on Thursday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples. “Equality under the law is a founding principle of America, but we will not all be equal until everyone has the freedom to choose whom to love and whom to spend their lives with,” Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said during a news conference in Wilmington. “It is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry.”

Joe.My.God has details on the GOP brief urging Prop 8’s overturn – a number of homocons have now signed on:

Other homocon brief signees include former Log Cabin head R. Clark Cooper, former UN ambassadors spokesman Richard Grenell (who spent two hot minutes with the Romney campaign before getting canned), former Log Cabin head Patrick Guerriero, former Rep. Michael Huffington, former Rep. Jim Kolbe, and former MA state Rep. Richard Tisei, who ran unsuccessfully for the US House last year.

The American Sociological Association has also filed a brief urging repeal of both the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8:

In a press release posted to the organization’s website, ASA President Cecilia Ridgeway said: ‘The results of our review are clear. ‘There is no evidence that children with parents in stable same-sex or opposite-sex relationships differ in terms of well-being. Indeed, the greater stability offered by marriage for same-sex as well as opposite-sex parents may be an asset for child well-being’.

Several dozen Episcopal Church Bishops also filed two amicus briefs, one supporting the repeal of DOMA, and one the repeal of Prop 8, the Episcopal News Service reports:

In one filing, bishops in California unanimously supported a challenge to the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that ended access to civil marriage for same-sex couples in state. They joined Episcopal bishops in nine other states and Washington, D.C., 29 bishops in all, representing 23 out of 24 dioceses in civil jurisdictions with marriage equality, in supporting a second brief challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which prevents the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex civil marriages in their dioceses.

Parent, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) today filed a Supreme Court brief in support of the overturn of Proposition 8. The brief includes numerous real life stories of gay people and their families and is relatively light on legal citations.

It’s absolutely amazing to see the support for the repeal of these two hateful laws just pouring in.